Bechamp or Pasteur? A Lost Chapter in the History of Biology

Ashingdon, England: The C.W. Daniel Company, 1947. Cloth. Very Good/Very Good. The 1947 stated 3rd edition (revised), in its uncommon original dustjacket. A presentable, solid copy. Tight and VG (light offsetting to the endpapers, staining {bleaching} at the fore-edges) in a crisp, price-intact, VG dustjacket, with light wear and darkening along the spine, and light chipping to its crown. Octavo, 250 pgs. A first-rate, scholarly study of the great French biologist (and chemist) Antoine Bechamp (1816-1908) and Louis Pasteur, who, as claimed in this text, plagiarized many of Bechamp's ideas. From the dustjacket's rear cover: "All who wish to understand the history of the germ theory of disease must read this 'lost chapter in the history of biology', and learn what the germ actually is, what its origin, what its function in health and disease, and finally what becomes of it. Perhaps ther most remarkable fact about this remarkable book, which has been described as the most sensational work on biology that has appeared for several generations, is the absence of adverse criticism since it was first published twenty-three years ago. The reason for the silence of the bacteriologists must be that 'they cannot answer it'. The eminent analytical chemist who writes the Foreword shows the case of Pasteur's plagiarisms of Bechamp to be unanswerable, and a Harley Street physician has affirmed 'the facts it gives are facts for all time'.